198 PART IV PREPARATORY STAGE. 



devoted to visible results. This, however, is being progressively met by 

 trades and firms having research departments and re-organisers, and by 

 so arranging the duties of certain individuals that they may have, when 

 required, ample leisure to experiment and to think of ordinary and radical 

 improvements. 



In any investigation the present Sub-Conclusion plays mani- 

 festly a weighty part, for unless we consult our contempor- 

 aries and the past, steady advance in an enquiry is sadly 

 hampered. 1 



85. (C) REGARD FOR THE FUTURE. To ensure a true 

 perspective we should also pay heed to the demands of posterity. 

 Only when our vision extends to the future, are we likely to 

 gain a comprehensive view of our subject and be sufficiently 

 bold in our aspirations and conceptions. 



86. (D) PERSONAL EQUATION AND TRAINING. We 

 naturally do not postulate in this treatise that everybody can 

 equally well undertake the solution of any and every problem 

 after a perusal of the Conclusions submitted in these pages. 

 There should be some guidance and practice initially, and a fair 

 general education to serve as a basis. We should, in the second 

 place, select a class of problem already under investigation (Con- 

 clusion 5), and enter on a discriminating study of what has been 

 hitherto accomplished rather than be entirely ruled by abstract 

 notions. Such a study, continued throughout the enquiry, will 

 act both as a check and as a spur. We manifestly should, 

 thirdly, make a direct and general survey of our subject before 

 actually launching our enquiry. Next arises the point of our 

 suitability for the task selected. Persons with relatively inade- 

 quate preparation, time, and resources should preferably select 

 scientific work which accords with their limitations, and these 

 will concentrate on comparatively restricted issues, or assist 

 others. 2 The varying personal equation, the need for training, 

 and the financial and other support tendered to scientific 

 institutions or to men of science are, therefore, presupposed 

 throughout these pages. 



1 Without pretending to prescribe a course of reading, it may be pointed 

 out that the main conclusions in most departments of knowledge may be 

 found in comprehensive text-books, or even primers, written by competent 

 specialists, and that encyclopaedias and excellent manuals on physiography, 

 biology, etc., epitomise the contents of related sciences. There is therefore 

 no need to read every book on every subject in order to be passably well- 

 informed. 



2 "There is scarcely any well-informed person, who, if he has but the 

 will, has not also the power to add something essential to the general stock of 

 knowledge, if he will only observe regularly and methodically some particular 

 class of facts which may most excite his attention, or which his situation 

 may best enable him to study with effect." (Herschel, Discourse, [127.].) In 

 the vocational life, for example, few are so unfavourably situated that they 

 cannot make and suggest improvements in their particular sphere. Even if 

 each one were only to perform his or her task conscientiously and intelli- 

 gently, the life of mankind would be revolutionised. 



